Year 5

In Year 5 this term we have been learning about the Vikings. We made our own Viking long houses out of shoeboxes – complete with fireplaces and animals enclosures. We have also made our very own amulets, which we designed to look like Thor’s hammer. Thor was the Viking god of thunder, who farmers worshipped in the hope of good weather for growing their crops. We hope these will keep away the stormy weather! At the start of Term 2, we hosted a Viking visitor, who taught us games Viking children used to play. He showed us some weapons and talked to us about their food and stories they used to tell each other around the fireplace.

As part of our geography theme this term we are learning about the continent of South America. North Somerset Music Service delivered a Samba drumming workshop to Year 5 pupils and we had a go on the instruments and created our very own samba band! We played on the surdo, caixa and replinique drums, played on the agogos, tamborims, shakers and even the chocalos and recco-reccos!
In Brazil samba bands play during carnivals as processions walk through the streets so we had to play loudly. This involved some shouting and making lots of noise indeed!
We have also been learning about fossils for our ‘Evolution and Inheritance’ topic. To kick start our topic we had the challenge of building and piecing together the bones of a ‘T-rex’ and a ‘brachiosaurus’. This was a great activity for working together as a team.
In addition to our Evolution and Inheritance topic, we are carrying out a local environment science experiment. We are looking at the local climate and collecting rainfall and then comparing this data to other local schools.